


The Oath We Swore

by Lockea



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alpha Sephiroth, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Cloud Strife Collects All the Orphans, Cute Kids, Family Bonding, International Fanworks Day 2019, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Omega Cloud Strife, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 15:16:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17789789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lockea/pseuds/Lockea
Summary: In the ten years since Meteorfall, the Planet has begun a long road to recovery and built lives along the way. For omegas Cloud and Tifa, life after looks like a bar, a part time delivery service, and a family with three kids. Denzel, omega, adopted after Meteorfall. Marlene, omega, in part time custody while her father gallivants across the world. And finally, Sephira, alpha, born to Cloud fourteen years prior while he laid strapped to an exam table in a mad scientist’s laboratory, the daughter of Calamity’s Cursed Child. Nonetheless, they’re a normal family with normal problems… at least until the day Sephira’s father returns, but for once not to destroy the world, but to find his place in it instead.





	The Oath We Swore

**Author's Note:**

> Happy International Fanworks Day 2019! I've been working on this fic off and on for about four months now, and it's gone through a few iterations. This one's pretty fun and a bit more light hearted than most of my Final Fantasy VII fics.
> 
> The fic is not canon compliant in that Cloud was never part of the infantry, nor did he try for SOLDIER, but he did go to Midgar as a young teenager and return Nibelheim with Sephiroth and everything from there on out happens as it does in canon. He and Sephiroth were sleeping together when Cloud was a teenager, but none of that is explicitly stated beyond Teen Mom!Cloud. In this fic, however, it's pre-Nibelheim!Sephiroth/post-AC!Cloud so Cloud is in his early 30s and Sephiroth is about seven years younger than Cloud. Lifestream Shenanigans!

The world had ended and yet here they were.

“Mom! I can’t find my blue cardigan!”

“Then wear the pink one!”

“I hate the pink one! Aunt Tifa! Marlene stole my cardigan!”

“I did not! You had it in your closet last night, Sephira.”

“Well, it’s not there now.”

“Sephira, don’t blame your sister. Marlene, go help Sephira before she has a meltdown.”

“Yes, Aunt Tifa.”

Cloud sipped his tea. The world had literally ended almost ten years ago and yet to the three teenagers living under his roof the world was ending right now on the first day of a new school year. Cloud watched from his position at the kitchen table as Marlene dashed back up the stairs, listened to the ensuing scuffle as the girls hunted through their closet for Sephira’s missing sweater. Denzel sulked into the kitchen then, summoned by the allure of strongly brewed black tea and nursed the mug as if it contained the secrets of the heavens within its dark depths. The teenager was still half asleep as his younger sisters slid into the kitchen, Sephira’s cardigan thrown over her shoulders in triumph. With her blue tipped hair and glasses hiding green eyes, she looked like any other teenage girl living in Edge.

“I see you found your sweater.” Cloud remarked dryly as Marlene took her seat at the table and resumed eating her toast. “Where was it?”

“Exactly where she left it.” Marlene answered, ignoring her sister’s glare in retaliation.

“All that fuss over clothes.” Tifa remarked as she entered the kitchen, granting each child an unwanted hug as she passed. “I remember when we didn’t have enough clothes that weren’t in tatters to be picky about what we wore. Don’t you Cloud? We would have killed to have your problem, Sephy.”

Cloud nodded sagely. “I can’t say I miss those days.”

Sephira rolled her eyes and ate her toast in silence, playing on her phone and doing her best to ignore her embarrassing mother and aunt as they gossiped about those days when she was little and the world had just ended. Planet! They were so sappy! “Oh! Are we still going to the church after class today?” Sephira asked, glancing up from her phone. “Macy just asked me if I’d like to go get dessert with her after school.”

“You can go.” Cloud said. “We’ll go to the church after dinner tonight so be home by six. Have fun.”

“Ooooh! Macy!” Marlene sing-songed as she rose to dump her dishes in the sink. “Sephy has a crush!”

“She’s just a friend.” Sephira snapped back. “I do not have a crush on her.”

Tifa glanced over at Cloud, meeting his gaze. Oh no. Sephira was in love. “Is Macy an omega?” Tifa asked.

“Yes.” Marlene said at the time Sephira answered, “No!”

“Sephira…” Tifa began, but Sephira cut her off.

“I’m going to be late!” She stood and dumped the rest of her breakfast in the trash, making for the door so fast Cloud might have thought she had a haste spell on her. Marlene laughed and even Denzel chuckled as he gulped down the rest of his tea and rose to grab his bag.

Tifa sighed as the other two kids filed out the door, following their sister to class. When she and Cloud were alone in the kitchen Tifa sighed and dropped down in the chair Sephira had vacated. “When did they grow up?” She groaned. “Seems like just yesterday we brought Denzel home and now I _know_ he’s sharing his heats with that alpha from down the street. Speaking off, contraceptives. I’m out.”

“I’m not.” Cloud answered. “Take some of mine. You and Rude going steady now?”

Tifa nodded, but turned her focus back to the kids. “We should make sure Denzel has access to suppressants and contraceptives. The worst would be if Denzel got pregnant.” She scrunched up her nose. “Oh, and someone should talk to Sephira, make sure that if she and this omega get serious, she knows how to be safe.”

“Not it.” Cloud answered immediately. Tifa glared at him.

“She’s your daughter.”

“So? Vincent is her grandfather, and an alpha. I’ll make him do it.” Cloud replied breezily. “He’s wanted to be more involved in her life for a few years now – here’s a good way to do it. They can bond over alpha bullshit.”

Tifa chuckled. “Vincent give the sex talk? Hah! I want to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.” Finally, she let the subject drop. “Anyway, I’m going back to bed for a few hours. I know you’re heading to the forge, but don’t forget to be home in time for dinner.”

Cloud sighed, “Nag, nag, nag. It’s church day, of course I won’t forget.”

While Tifa returned to her room to sleep off the late nights running the bar, Cloud made sure his PHS had a full charge and headed out with his few packages for morning deliveries. He dropped by the pharmacy on his way to the forge, not even surprised when the pharmacist greeted him by name and asked about his kids. Her name was Lucille, a beta, and her son attended school with the kids.  “Must be tough.” Lucille mused as she slid the contraceptives across the counter for Cloud to take. “One alpha in a house full of omegas, two omegas raising three kids together. I don’t know how you and Tifa do it.”

Cloud didn’t mention that fighting to save the planet had been far more difficult than raising kids, and that being omegas didn’t mean he and Tifa weren’t incapable of raising an alpha and two omegas by themselves. Besides, they weren’t alone. Barret was an active part of his daughter’s life, Vincent adored his granddaughter, and Reeve had given Denzel an internship last summer and was helping him pick out a technical trade for when he graduated high school. Sure, Cloud and Tifa did the mundane shit like make sure they cleaned and showered and did their laundry and homework, but they weren’t alone in raising their kids.

He didn’t mention any of that, just waved goodbye to Lucille and headed for the forge. Edge’s community forge was part of a larger fabrication network, where the citizens of Edge could fix their broken things instead of throwing them away. It sat next to the workshops but was its own separate space. It was Reeve’s idea, of course, to set up community shops where anyone could come and learn trade skills or fix what was broken, but he’d been more than happy to set Cloud up with the weapon’s master of the forge, who’d taught the young omega how to make his own weapons and repair them. He’d retired last year, and since then Cloud had been running the forge, the only omega among an almost entirely male staff of alphas and betas.

There were only three full time staff in the forge today, all alphas focusing on the recycling of scrap metal that was hauled from the ruins of Midgar. Cloud checked the docket for the day, saw that none of the citizens had signed up to either use the smeltery or learn more about the program, and headed for the office to tackle administrative work for a few hours.

It felt like a day like any other, and next Cloud blinked it was five and the shift was changing and one of Cloud’s smiths, Jameson, a former infantry, had poked his head into Cloud’s office and reminded him to go home.

Cloud pulled his bike up in the alley behind Seventh Heaven and stepped in through the kitchen door to the smell of food already prepared and sitting on the table, his family gathered and waiting. All three children were present, even Sephira even though Cloud had half wondered if she’d come home for dinner or not. He refrained from teasing her about the omega – Macy, was it? – as they sat down and began to eat. Chatter filled the air, mundane and simple and normal.

Tifa said, “How did your test go today, Denzel?”

“Pretty well.” Denzel answered. “Reeve helped me study for it. I bet I get the top mark this year.”

“That’s great! We’re so proud of you Denzel.” She turned to the girls next. They were the same age, in the same grade at school, and even though there’d been something of a divide ever since Marlene’s first heat a few months ago, they were still the same best friends they’d been since they met for the first time in a very different Seventh Heaven ten years ago. “Are you two excited for your upcoming class trip?”

Sephira groaned and dropped her head in her hands, while Marlene snickered. “I am.” Marlene said. “Orion-sensei said that alphas and omegas have to sleep separate from each other.”

Cloud wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what had his daughter so upset, but he said anyway, “That’s normal for your age group.”

Marlene looked a little too pleased with herself as she said, “Sephira’s mad because she thinks all the other alphas in the class are smelly and stupid and she doesn’t want to share a room with them.”

“I mean, she’s not wrong.” Denzel pointed out. “Alphas are smelly and stupid.”

Sephira glared at him. “Shut up, Denzel. I’m not smelly or stupid, but the alphas in my class – all they can talk about is omegas and which omega is cute or that they’d like to have sex with and today Brian said he thought Marlene was hot and I was lucky not to _actually_ be her sister and I wanted to punch him.”

“I admire your restraint.” Cloud said sagely, although he privately thought he’d have a hard time being mad at Sephira for defending her sister’s honor. Stupid alphas. Cloud didn’t much like them either.

Across the table, Tifa was smirking at him. Cloud ignored her. They finished dinner and while Denzel and Marlene washed up Tifa took over opening the bar and Cloud and Sephira changed to go to the church.

Aerith’s church, or what remained of it, was one of the few places in Midgar that hadn’t changed much, or at all really, in the ten years since meteor. Sure, the rain had made it more of an oasis than a ruin, but it was a sacred place. AVALANCHE cared for it, handled its maintenance and restoration, and guarded it. Most of that work fell to Vincent and Cloud, because the church was more than just a memorial to the Goddess who saved the world. It was Sephira’s only hope at a normal life.

Sephira climbed off Cloud’s bike first and strode towards the doors leading inside with familiar ease. Eight years ago, when Cloud and Sephira and Denzel had been in the throes of Geostigma, sick and dying, the church was their only hope to heal. It had taken the last of the green whispers from Sephira’s head, the whispers only the six-year-old could hear. She’d never heard another voice since. But Cloud was cautious. Sephira was a Calamity Child – like her father, like the remnants who took her when she was six. So, they came once a month to this sacred place to bathe in the waters and make sure the voices never returned. Cloud followed after her, marveling once more at how much his little girl had grown.

Cloud was thirty, he was young, yet Sephira was fourteen, an alpha in the midst of puberty, worried about her sister’s honor and worried about the girl she liked and worried about missing sweaters and blue tipped hair and whether her glasses made her look stupid. He’d given everything to give her this life, and he didn’t regret for a moment that coming to the church was the small price they paid for Sephira to have what Cloud had never had – what Sephira’s father had never had.

They didn’t speak as they undressed, stripping down to the swimsuits they wore under their clothes. Sephira changed quickly, as if she was going to get this over with as fast as possible, but Cloud knew better. He was just removing his shirt when Sephira, clad in a bikini that Cloud hated because it showed so much skin, ran across the wooden floors of the church and cannonballed into the water. Cloud laughed as the girl surfaced with a gasp. “Holy fuck that’s cold.” She cried out.

Cloud was still choking back laughter as he replied, “Language, Sephy.”

“Mom,” Sephira whined. “It’s cold.”

“Well you shouldn’t have jumped in like that.” Cloud replied, non-plussed. Technically, Cloud didn’t need to go into the water himself. The baths in Aerith’s holy water were to keep JENOVA’s legacy latent in Sephira’s cells, but Cloud had made a habit of getting in the water with her back when she was too young to understand that she was different. It had made her feel better thinking that both of them were different. She’d felt less alone. It was only last year that Cloud had told her the truth – that the first Calamity Child was her father and that as such she had to bathe in the water to keep him from coming back through her legacy.

“Ugh.” Sephira groaned. “It’s the only fall and it’s so cold. Can I get out now?”

“Twenty minutes.” Cloud replied. “You know the rules.”

Sephira whined again and ducked back under the water while Cloud came to sit on the edge of the pool, his feet dangling in the water. Yeah, it was pretty fucking cold. He made a mental note to text Tifa and ask one of the kids to put on a kettle of hot tea for them. He got up and headed for the gas-powered heater that sat in one corner of the old sanctuary, lighting it off so at least Sephira would have something to shiver behind when she climbed out of the chilly water.

Sephira hadn’t yet surfaced again when Cloud turned around, silver hair floating on top of the water. It wasn’t that unusual, because Sephira could hold her breath as long as any SOLDIER ever could. Still, something seemed off. Sephira had dyed her hair just a few days ago and the tips were still a brilliant sapphire blue.

A body floated to the surface, the silver hair pooling around it. It wasn’t Sephira – too tall and long limbed and male.

Cloud startled back as a shout tore from his throat, his daughter’s name on his lips as he rushed the pool and jumped in, heading for Sephiroth and desperately searching for what happened to Sephira.

The girl reappeared a moment later, bursting from the water with a deep gasp for air. She was on the other side of the pool from them, thank goodness. “Sephira!” Cloud shouted. “Get out of the water! Get help!”

“Mom?” The teenager was already moving to the edge of the pool and pulling herself out of the water. Cloud didn’t respond as he reached Sephiroth’s body, but the nightmare wasn’t moving. Cloud paused just shy of him, but the man was floating prone on his back with only the slow rise and fall of his chest to indicate that this wasn’t some construct or rejected clone that had taken the man’s appearance. “Mom!” Sephira shouted again.

Cloud turned his head to look at her. “Go.” He ordered. “Call Aunt Tifa and your grandfather, then I want you to get as far from here as possible.”

Sephira nodded, her pale skin was bleached completely white from a combination of the cold and her fear as she stared at the man who continued, to this day, to haunt her nightmares. Cloud turned back to the man in front of him as he heard Sephira grab his phone from their belongings and rush to dress before she ran out the double doors and back towards the street.

Once his daughter was gone, Cloud turned his full attention back to the man in front of him. It was Sephiroth, all right, looking precisely the same as he always did, eternally caught in early adulthood, like the memory of him the night before they left for Nibelheim would forever come back to haunt Cloud. It’d been eight years; Cloud thought they were past this.

The nightmare mocked him, unconscious in the water. Cloud sighed and pulled himself out of the pool, taking advantage of the fact that Sephiroth hadn’t so much as stirred while he dressed and grabbed his sword, taking up vigil close to the edge while he waited for Tifa and Vincent to arrive.

Vincent arrived first, in a shadow of red flowing over the church roof until he landed with a soft thud on the floor beside Cloud. The former Turk assessed the situation with his usual stoicism, glancing between Cloud and Sephiroth briefly before he said, “A WRO patrol picked Sephira up and took her home. She called me first and I had her flag a patrol while I spoke to Tifa.”

Cloud nodded, but didn’t move from watching Sephiroth. Vincent continued, “She’s petrified.”

“It’s not surprising.” Cloud finally sighed, and rubbed his forehead with his hand. “She was in the water and then _he_ showed up, just floated to the surface like his body had been there forever. It’d freak anyone out.”

It freaked Cloud out. He was just beginning to accept that he might be able to put all these conflicts behind him, put being the Planet’s damn savior in his past and focus on being a mother to his children.

Vincent settled into silent vigil beside him, keeping watch for the next twenty minutes. During that time, Cloud heard Tifa’s truck pull up outside the church, the diesel engine loud as darkness fell over the church. She was carrying a flashlight with her as she stepped inside, dressed for a fight with her gloves on her hands. Cloud hadn’t seen her wear those gloves in years. With their enhanced vision, Cloud and Vincent didn’t need the light to see by, but neither protested as Tifa lit the oil sconces along the walls, casting the church in dim yellow light.

“So,” Tifa breathed out as she came to stand beside the other two. “He’s back again.”

Again. Because he wouldn’t just stay dead.

Cloud abruptly unfolded himself from where he was leaning cross armed against the side of the church, stepping forward to the edge of the pool. Sephiroth was still unconscious. He was still beautiful to Cloud, especially with his face softened from its usual sneer of disdain and anger. Cloud dropped down to his knees and reached out to grab the man, pulling him from the water and up onto the ledge. After a moment, Vincent came to help while Tifa hunted for a blanket from the storage container in what was once the church’s bell tower.

It was as if Cloud’s touch woke him, not immediately of course, but after Tifa came back and laid the blanket over Sephiroth’s nude form, the man began to stir. By unspoken direction the three took up defensive stances around him. The man, however, just blinked slowly as he came to wakefulness, glancing around him even as he sat up before abruptly falling backward again.

Cloud watched, surprised at such a graceless display as Sephiroth failed to even hold himself upright. Something wasn’t right here. Before he could process it though, the silver haired former SOLDIER glanced over at the three of them. “Cloud?” Sephiroth asked, and his voice was soft, name spoken without malice. “Where—”

Cloud cut him off. “What are you doing here?” He demanded. “What do you want this time? To destroy the world? To take Sephira?”

“Cloud I don’t –” Sephiroth began, then halted. Cloud’s sword was held in both hands, and Sephiroth’s eyes fell on it. “That’s the Buster.” He observed softly. Cloud didn’t correct him. The Buster was marking a grave outside Midgar, this was First Tsurugi. Sephiroth glanced over at Vincent and Tifa, then his green eyes flicked back onto Cloud. “Where is Zack? Where am I?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Cloud saw Vincent and Tifa exchange concerned glances with each other, even as neither dropped their guard. Cloud didn’t either. “Dead.” He spat in response to the first question. “You’re in the church in what used to be Midgar.”

Why didn’t Sephiroth know this? Why was he just staring at Cloud? Cloud didn’t like this at all. What game was Sephiroth playing with them this time?

“‘What used to be Midgar.’” Sephiroth echoed softly. He took another, longer, look around and frowned. “What do you mean, ‘what used to be’?”

“You really don’t remember?” Cloud asked, more surprised than upset at this point. He took a moment to take stock of the facts. Sephiroth had appeared, unconscious, in the holy waters of Aerith’s spring which had purged Sephira of the last of her JENOVA cells. He was weak and barely able to hold himself upright, he didn’t know where he was and he didn’t know Zack was dead or that Midgar was gone. “What do you last remember?” Cloud asked, dreading the answer.

Sephiroth furrowed his brow as he thought for a moment. “Last night.” He decided. “I got back from a six-week deployment to Wutai. I bought groceries from the ShinRa commissary and then I found you in the slums in the early evening. We went back to your place and we made Nibelheim food – Shepard’s pie – for dinner. I remember falling asleep in your bed.”

Cloud paused, caught off guard by the admission. He remembered that night. He remembered how much he’d missed Sephiroth and how delighted he was to see him after their month and a half apart. He remembered pushing Sephiroth back against the bed and climbing on top of him, desperate to show the man who’d unexpectedly stolen the heart of a slum omega like Cloud how much he treasured him. He remembered it because as they laid entwined that night Sephiroth had made a promise.

_“I will always be with you._ ”

Cloud’s sword clattered to the ground, but he hardly noticed it over the deafening roar in his ears. “That was fifteen years ago.” Cloud said faintly. Two months before the incident at Nibelheim. Nine months before Sephira was born. That night was one of three possible nights Cloud could have conceived her. Fifteen years. How was this possible?

Sephiroth’s eyes widened at that before they narrowed again, his brow furrowed. Cloud watched him, still wary, as Sephiroth reassessed his surroundings once more. “How?” The man asked.

“I don’t know.” Cloud admitted. Oh, he had theories. He’d thought, at first, that Sephiroth had found his way out of the Lifestream once more, drawn to here where the barrier between the Lifestream and the Planet was thin, where Sephira’s cells could call to him if he wished it. Now, however, seeing the man confused as he was, Cloud still thought Sephira had been the catalyst for his return, but he no longer wondered if Sephiroth had intentionally followed his daughter back to the realm of the living. No, this was something else. “Do you still hear the voices?” He asked seriously.

Sephiroth had told Cloud once, back before Nibelheim, about the green whispers in his head, the dreams of a woman telling him to embrace his destiny. He’d thought everyone had those voices in their head and been surprised at Cloud’s surprise. But Cloud had loved Sephiroth by then, too much to be scared of the whispers. He should have been scared, but even if he was, he doubted it would have changed anything. Nibelheim would still have burned for the JENOVA cells feeding Sephiroth lies and madness.

“No.” Sephiroth answered, sounding surprised as he realized it. “No. I don’t hear anything.”

Finally, warily, Vincent lowered his gun and Tifa dropped her arms slightly, ready to come alert again if needed. “Could it be,” Vincent mused, “that the spring worked on him as it did on Sephira?”

“Does it matter if it did?” Tifa replied. “He’s a murderer and a psychopath. He could be tricking us to get to Sephira.”

Sephiroth glanced between the two of them, though he did not recognize either of them. Then again, even in the past Sephiroth had never paid much attention to Tifa or Vincent, despite their connections. “No.” Cloud decided after a moment of consideration. “It’s too much to unravel in one night, but I don’t think this is a trick. I don’t think this is the same Sephiroth who burned Nibelheim and dropped a meteor on Midgar.” He turned to look at Sephiroth, searching the man’s face for the malice he was so accustomed to finding there. “I think this really is Sephiroth from the past, and I think whoever – or whatever – did this has stripped JENOVA from him.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please consider leaving a comment if you enjoyed this fic. I try to answer all my comments, but sometimes That Bitch Depression gets in the way of me replying. I do, however, cherish every comment received, whether it's a single word, and emoticon, or an indepth analysis of everything you enjoyed in the fic. All comments are good comments and I love every one of my readers!


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